The practice of teaching reading should be based on the nature and dignity of human beings. The major problem in the study of reading is that the reading model on which pedagogy is based is inconsistent with this view of persons. The view that reading is a skills-determined, linear process in which readers decode, process, and retrieve information is based on a computer model and implies that skills teaching should be preeminent. Reading is not a linear process, however, but a cyclical and synergistic activity, an interaction between the reader, content, and strategies; this model is more promising as a teaching model than is the linear model. The teaching of reading must consider the relation of the text to the readers' understandings and attitudes as well as strategies; these strategies do not develop in isolation from their use. Specific recommendations from this theory include the following: select texts that are meaningful to the reader; recognize that learning to read is a lifelong process; affect the reader's knowledge, feelings, and inclinations about the reading task; encourage students to see the relationship between text and previous knowledge, suggest and model strategies that are appropriate to the text; provide much reading opportunity in school; use content area readings; and recognize that comprehension may not be testable by standard measures. (DF)